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Zimbabwe was plunged into mourning last Sunday when seven Dynamos fans died in a road accident on their way to a match in Gweru. The blow was deeply felt by the Dynamos family which had to deal with the loss in the midst of their preparations for a match with Chapungu FC at Ascot Stadium that afternoon.Minutes after the accident, social media was awash with horrific pictures of mangled bodies thrown around, while some video footage showed some of the surviving passengers writhing in pain.

It is likely that the pictures and videos that followed were taken by people who got to the scene moments after the tragedy. Perhaps even by the survivors of this horrific accident. The incident demonstrates a sad development where social media is increasingly pushing the envelope as to what is humane and acceptable.

Social media has various advantages, but these should be used within the values that have built communities for centuries. It is a raging tide that must be tamed and converted to the interests of society lest it wrecks the very essence of being human.

As a young Zimbabwean poet puts it, “when people make tools, frontiers of civilisation are extended, but when tools make people, apocalypse is not far behind”. It is a sobering truth we need to consider with regard to the uses and abuses of social media.

Social media has been rightly commended for capturing drama and sense of urgency in tragedy and other latest events, streaming to millions before the traditional media gets to the scene.

Beyond immediacy, social media has been lauded for expanding the news-stand, opening up the agora and giving a fresh impetus to journalism. Traditional media organisations have been kept on their toes, looking for fresh angles and deeper layers to stories.

Newsrooms have resisted being swept to the wayside of the web-driven creative destruction by reverting to what is now referred to as Day two journalism, which probes the issue rather than flashing the event.

However, the robust growth of citizen journalism, an appendage of social media has also brought with it several challenges and has not been without casualties, as the cyber newsroom is pushing the envelope on individual entitlement to privacy, dignity and humanity, all in the name of breaking the story before others.

While social media has empowered nearly everyone to be the source and to break a story, such a huge breakthrough has not been matched with the high level of responsibility expected in the dissemination of information of any nature.

The brazen manner in which the pictures of the Dynamos tragedy were distributed is a clear example how social media has become a source of consternation to individuals, while developing new headaches for legislators.

A social network without obligations to effectively serve its constituency by being responsible, truthful and conscious of the right to privacy is in itself an abuse to the very people, it should be serving.

Rather than being a conduit of news and communication in a socially beneficial way, it jeopardises the value structure by which society is sustained. The unlimited flow of information is a democratising innovation, but the irresponsible flow of information is quite unacceptable and should not be allowed to continue.

Ordinary people who care about their privacy should be asking the tough questions on how best they should be protected against the vagaries of social media, especially where their privacy and that of their families is concerned.

As the world becomes increasingly depend on Internet and other digitally driven innovations, it is important not to outpace ethics. For the good of everyone, users of these media have to respect private spaces in other people’s lives.

The public has to exercise a high degree of restraint and be able to draw a line on what is permissible to share with the public and at what cost. It is easy to imagine freedom as an open-ended galore, but we must not forget that freedom without responsibility is anarchy.

Posting of such horrendous pictures as in the case of the Dynamos fans, should be declared criminal and should not be allowed to happen.